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chapter eight ━ holidaze part two
season six, episode ten
❝ it's freaking christmas! ❞
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christmas eve
Four days after Thanksgiving, Aliya didn't leave the hospital. Her dress was folded neatly into her cubby, her coat slung across the bench carelessly, and she burned through six pairs of scrubs after various incidents involving traumas and blood gushing out of open abdominal wounds.
The nurses gossiped about her (in a worried, caring way rather than the usual), speculating reasons as to why she hadn't gone home yet, and if she was finally going mad. The other surgeons were wary when she was on their service, her regular sunny attitude was suppressed by her a new, blunt attitude they did not like.
She didn't really enjoy it either, but this was what she was working with today.
Everyone watched her from afar on the fourth day and it came to a point where Alex and Meredith came to get her from the hospital on their day off, practically dragging her out of there.
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two days after thanksgiving
"She needs to go home." Meredith commented, observing Aliya cautiously as she snapped, rather out of character, at an intern for not drawing blood properly out of a patients arm.
"No, she doesn't. Leave her here. I like Aliya when she's pissed and bitchy." Cristina replied, smiling over at the brunette who was now condescendingly demonstrating how to draw blood by drawing on the back of an old chart in black and red biro pen.
"She's pissed because her whole family are lunatics." Alex stated, raising his head to study his friend closer. "Believe me, I was there. She's the only normal Levine."
"Mommy issues are brutal." Meredith stated, empathising with Aliya who was now making her way over to them, her face tensed with anger. The three were pretty sure she had made the wide eyed intern cry.
He was now no longer to be seen.
"Interns." The brunette scoffed deeply, grabbing a chart off of the desk. "They get worse every year. We weren't that bad were we?" She stared down at the chart with a shaking head, scribbling angrily onto it with so much force she began to cut through the pages, making the other three residents agree with her instantly.
Because, who knows what would happen if they disagreed.
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christmas eve
The invasion of orange was now long gone.
Everybody had gotten used to the new staff and found a rhythm that Aliya enjoyed. She even enjoyed interacting with them. They chatted with her in the nurses station, and even told her that Mark had a daughter, which led to Aliya choking on the cookies they fed her.
Apparently a girl named Sloan Riley came to the ER on Thanksgiving when Aliya was in LA, claiming Mark was her dad which stirred the whole hospital up into a tornado of bottomless gossip.
That was a month ago now, and Aliya resolved that she wouldn't let her Thanksgiving ruin her Christmas, seeing as it was her favourite time of year.
She loved everything about it from the desserts to the decorations to the traditions. She loved putting up the decorations and her and Izzie insisted every year that they enter the neighbourhood Christmas House competition, which Mer would refuse, but the two women would do anyway.
However, Mer didn't even try and refuse this year and Aliya knew it was for pity but, she decided it was for the good of mankind to get one positive thing out of being sad.
"That asshole Meryl from down the road isn't gonna win this year. Ha! I'll make sure of it."
Aliya adjusted the wire snowman on the lawn, fixing the cable so it was partially out of sight, hidden under the fake snow.
Meredith stood with Alex and Derek on the porch, watching Aliya as she scuttered about the snow-covered grass, winding lights around the bush with her glasses propped on her nose.
Alex watched his best friend in amusement. "She belongs on a documentary or something."
"Or in the psych ward." Derek added, watching Aliya through narrowed, cautious eyes.
"Leave her alone, she's—" Mer paused for a moment, racking her brain around for the right word to use. "She's coping. She's coping well."
"She's turned the lawn into Santa's freaking grotto." Derek muttered, watching the brunette as her foot proceeded to get caught around a reindeer.
"Well, if that's what it takes." Meredith turned back inside the house, away from the fake snow.
"Hey, Derek!" Aliya poked her head from behind a bush, noticing the two men watching her on the porch. "Come help me, will you?" She turned back to where she was wrapping lights around.
Correction.
Where she was struggling to wrap the lights around the bush.
"Oh man." Derek murmured, turning his head as he watched his wife close the door behind her.
"You're alone on this one." Alex snorted, slipping through the door after Meredith.
Derek sighed, digging his hands into his pockets as he walked slowly down the steps, as if prolonging time.
"Can you pass me those string lights." Aliya pointed to a tangled heap on the side walk.
"Why don't you just do it yourself?" Derek replied picking the lights up and giving them to her. She shrugged wrapping them around the bush she was in with Derek's help.
"Thank you."
The neuro surgeon raised a brow. "You're stuck aren't you?"
"Very much so, yes." Aliya replied casually, adjusting the lights she just put up, seeing as she couldn't possibly do anything else.
Derek shook his head as he hobbled around the bush to help her. "Why are you doing all of this? I thought you were Jewish?"
"About fifty percent of the extended family are." Aliya explained, whilst simultaneously fixing the string lights in the bush, ignoring how her leg was currently tangled, the twigs digging into her blue jeans. "When my great grandmother comes over from Australia every five years, we don't do Christmas."
"I see." Derek nodded his head in understanding, reaching Aliya's side and preparing to drag her ass out of the bush he was rather fond of.
Now, there was going to be an Aliya-shaped hole in it.
"Aliya, what the hell are you doing in a bush?" A woman in a dark grey car that just pulled up questioned, poking her head out of her car window.
Mae Park looked at her friend in complete confusion, her elegant black hair tied out of her face and into a bun on the top of her head.
Derek smiled tightly at the woman, tugging Aliya out the bush by her elbows.
"Mae!" Aliya hopped the rest of the way out, missing Derek's face with her foot by an inch. Mae got up out of the car as Aliya ran into her arms, the pair jumping up and down. "When did you get back from New York?"
"Last night. Only temporary, I'll be gone before the New Year! Just came back to close up a business deal." Mae hugged her back, having to bend down seeing as she was much taller than Aliya.
"And, to see us because it pained you to be separated that long. The amount of restless nights you had were uncountable." Summer slammed the car door, making a fake sobbing sound. "So, Aliya, I don't get a hug?"
"I saw you yesterday. You are literally yesterday's news." Aliya informed whilst Summer looked at her in a mock-upset, striding around the car.
Yesterday was Eliza's checkup since she had surgery to remove the mass from her stomach, and everything was looking well.
"What have you done to the lawn?" Summer looked out onto Aliya's handiwork in horror, her eyes wide as she took it in. See, she was the total opposite to her friend. She never really cared all that much for Christmas.
"Hey!" Aliya defended, looking out at her masterpiece with pride.
"Tell me about it." Derek agreed, though his voice low in the hopes Aliya wouldn't be able to hear him. "Why don't you come inside, it's freezing."
"Oh! Yes!" Aliya clapped her hands, ushering the three of them into the house. "Come in, I need a hot coffee after that!"
"That needed to be done, I just spotted the blow up candy canes in that box over there." Derek pointed to Aliya's decoration box that was currently overflowing.
Mae pulled a disgusted look, being a woman owning a luxurious (and quite frankly minimalistic) lifestyle in New York, the blow up candy canes were a step too far.
The Park woman walked over to the boxes, picking them up and shoving them into the boot of her car with the help from Summer. "It's for her own good." She explained, entering the house with the others.
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"Hm." Aliya mumbled as she meandered around the toy store with Mae and Summer trailing close behind her. "Do you think James would like this?" She asked, reaching for a hospital lego set.
"Wow." Summer stared at the lego, perplexed. "Drilling the 'surgeon is the only career' thing that soon?" The Vasquez woman laughed, picking up a set of farmyard animals and analysing it, intently.
"Crap, yeah." Aliya sighed, putting the toy back onto the shelf. "I didn't think of that, don't want to force the poor kid. How about this one? You can do anything in the park!" She held up the cardboard box.
"It's cute." Mae commented, her head in her phone.
"You didn't even look up." Aliya complained, tucking the lego underneath her arm as she decided on the park. And besides, she can help him set it up, which is even more fun for her that way.
"I apologise but, we are late Christmas shopping and I need to buy something for my brother, how about this watch?" Mae turned her phone around, a picture of a gold chained watch with a huge dark grey clock face.
"Not really his style. I'll go with silver." Aliya commented, looking away from the phone and sifting through the picture books, picking up a few that looked interesting for her younger cousins.
"You know him so well." Summer mocked a sob, nudging her in the shoulder, teasingly.
"Shut up." Aliya muttered, now pretending to be really interested in the action figures.
"How long ago was it?" Summer teased with a wide grin on her face, reaching for a Barbie doll, the rollerskating kind. "Eight? Nine years?"
Mae looked up from her phone for once. "Eleven? Wasn't it?"
"Thanks, Mae for your contribution there." Aliya commented as she manoeuvred through the pair as they began making obnoxious kissing noises like they did when they were fourteen and in High School.
"How long was the relationship?" Summer smiled, knowing she was frustrating the hell out of Aliya. "Two years?"
"A year and a half actually." Aliya corrected grimly, going on her tip toes to reach a Disney Princess makeup set from the highest shelf. "We were young. Ancient history. So ancient it would be a module in an ancient history course." She defended, looking closely at the makeup set with narrowed eyes. "Hey! Maybe I should get this for Eliana."
"She would hate you forever, not like she already loves you." Summer pointed out and Aliya's jaw dropped at the harsh truth. Her friend wasn't wrong about her and her sister not having the best sisterly bond. Or any bond for that matter. "You're also changing the subject."
Aliya turned on her heel and descended further down another aisle, far away from the two reminders of her high school experience. "Ex-boyfriend subjects are now off limits for the next twenty four hours, deal?"
"No! I need to get him something! I need help!" Mae pleaded, striding after her. "You knew him better! Think back to the time you loved him, before you broke his heart when you wanted to move away for college. He cried for months afterwards you know."
Aliya stuck her tongue out at the unwanted guilt tripping.
"He's so difficult, Aliya! He buys himself everything he needs!" Mae started tapping aggressively into her phone, scowling and she scrolled through the fancy watch website.
Aliya mocked a sad face. "How unfortunate."
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"After sixteen years of friendship I still don't understanding how you can drink that." Mae stared at Aliya's to-go cup as she grasped it to warm up her hands, even though she was already wearing mittens Andy had knitted for her for Christmas last year.
"It's the greatest thing in the world. I get it every year since I moved to Seattle." Aliya sipped it, savouring every gingerbread and peppermint flavoured sip.
"I can back you up on some things Aliya—" Summer started as she received her drink — a soya milk cappuccino — from the barista. "But, those two flavour combinations sounds horrific."
"More like horrendous." Mae added.
"More like terrific." Aliya sipped happily, ignoring their comments of criticism as she savoured the taste of the best time of the year.
"Anyways," Mae began. "I was thinking, next year—"
The sound of a scream interjected Mae's chatter, and Aliya's head wizzed around scanning for the source.
"What the hell?" The brunette scanned the mall, looking for whatever caused the chatter.
"Help! Somebody help me please!"
Aliya jogged over to the source of the noise — a herd of people clustered around a man, around fifty years old, collapsed on the floor.
A young woman was perched by the side of him, potentially his daughter as Aliya deduced, crying as she tried to wake him up.
"Marty! Marty wake up!" The young woman pleaded, and Aliya passed her drink to a random stranger, pushing through the crowd.
"Excuse me, thanks, I'm a doctor. What happened?" Aliya crouched down by the other side of the man, looking at the woman with bright bleached blonde hair and dark green blood shot eyes. She sniffled as Aliya felt for a pulse.
"One minute we were talking and the next—" She whimpered into her palm. "He's going to be okay though, right?"
The pulse was weak, but there. She reached to check his pupils, though Marty began seizing right before her eyes.
Aliya instantly grabbed him, pulling Marty to his side as he shook in her arms. She spotted Mae and Summer push through the crowd, appearing next to her in a bundle of shopping bags and large winter coats. "Mae! Call 911!"
Mae nodded, pushing away from the crowd to get somewhere quieter.
"What's happening? Talk to me!" The blonde haired girl screamed.
"What's your name?" Aliya spoke as her arms began to rattle from holding the man.
"Theresa. But, everyone calls me Terry." Terry explained, rubbing at her eyes.
"Okay, Terry. The ambulance is on it's way. I'm doing the best I can to ensure your—" Aliya pushed, not sure what to call him.
"I don't really know what he is. We haven't talked about that sort of stuff." Terry cried even harder, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
"I need your jacket."
Terry pulled a face at Aliya's request as she looked slowly at her seemingly very expensive jacket.
"Now!" Aliya yelled.
Terry took it off rather begrudgingly. "Okay!"
"Now, put it under his head." Aliya ordered, and Terry did as she was told, however staring at the jacket with a sense of overwhelming grief. "Does he have a history of seizures?"
"Well, you see, he's kinda— my neighbour, my dad's friend. I don't know him very well. We only started dating a month ago. His wife isn't a very nice lady, she's too uptight so I guess Marty needed something better!" She chucked lightly to herself, and Aliya had to keep herself stern or her facial expression will say it all.
But, sometimes she just really couldn't help herself it seemed.
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Owen tied the top of his trauma gown as he jogged into the bay, Meredith following close behind as the ambulance pulled up in front of the hospital. He grabbed the door, tugging it open.
"Levine?" Owen stammered, and Mer peered into the rig. The brunette in question snapped her head when she heard her name.
"He collapsed at the mall and started seizing. Lasted for about eight minutes." She explained, hopping out of the ambulance to help get Marty out.
"Fifty six year old Martin Globerman, history of heart attacks but that's it. No history of seizures." The paramedic handed Hunt the charts as Marty was pushed into the ER.
"His— uh— girlfriend? Sugar baby? I don't even know. She's driving in her car behind." Aliya followed them into the room, shrugging off her jacket and placing it on the ER's front desk, leaving her wearing a red, incredibly festive Christmas jumper and jeans.
"Sugar baby?" Meredith smirked as the trio breezed through the corridor towards Trauma two.
"Sugar baby." Aliya confirmed with a wide grin.
"Levine, check his pupils." Owen ordered, handing her a flashlight while he and Meredith unstrapped Marty from the gurney. She clicked it on, opening his eyelids with one hand and shining the torch in Marty's eye with the other.
"Pupils are asymmetrical." Aliya concluded, switching the flashlight off.
"Okay, somebody page neu—" Owen began, but within an instant Marty began seizing again. This time his clenched knuckle collided with Aliya's cheek and nose, causing her to stumble back into the trolley behind. Pain shot through her abdomen as she fell back directly into the trolley.
"Aliya!" Meredith exclaimed in shock, helping Owen in an attempt to stop Marty's seizure, though quickly turning her head over her shoulder to where Aliya was crouched on the floor, a puddle of blood forming on the tiles in front of her.
"Levine! Are you alright?" Owen called out, spotting the woman's hand waving in the air.
"I'm fine!" She replied through gritted teeth, pulling herself up from the floor with one hand on her bloody nose and, her side stinging from the impact.
"Are you sure?" Meredith looked at her friend, whose cheek was covered in a bright red blush, a cut on it from where Marty's ring had scraped across her skin, in addition her nose bleeding down her face, causing the crimson to stain her lips.
Anyone would have thought it was Halloween, not Christmas.
Aliya stumbled her way to the door, her legs shaking from the impact of the fall. "I'll go page neuro."
"Wait, Levine." Marty stopped seizing and she turned back, watching Owen as he analysed her. "Go get checked out, that looks pretty bad."
"Thanks." Aliya grimaced. She pushed out of the Trauma room clutching her nose, and it was as if her whole world was tilted on her axis. Her gravity shifted, and she tried to walk straight to the front desk but, instead began walking at an angle as though she had drank too much eggnog and festive punch.
Aliya tapped on the desk she had finally reached, slumping over it. "Hi, Andy, please can you page neuro to trauma two–"
"Aliya!" The Nurse shot up from the seat, grabbing a handful of tissues and thrusting them towards Aliya's bloodied nose. "What happened to you?"
She breathed through the kleenex, some of it coming off and into her mouth rather disgustingly.
"Took a left hook to the nose." Aliya winced as she tried to stop the nose bleed. "Marty started seizing and he hit me in the face. Complete freak accident, I'm fine."
Andy sighed, her voice wavering with worry which she managed to suppress. "Did you say page neuro?" Aliya nodded, disposing of the tissues and grabbing clean, fresh ones. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To get cleaned up?" Aliya paused from where she was beginning to exit the ER to find the nearest bathrooom.
"You can't do that yourself, you're shaking!" Andy urged, though Aliya protested from where she stood. "And it's going to be like Hansel and Gretel in here, but with blood! You're dripping it everywhere and the cleaners are going to be pissed if they have to follow your trail!"
"Levine, What happened to you?" Cristina breezed out of Trauma one with Teddy and Jackson following close behind, their faces expressing the same concerned glance over at the brunette, now her white tissues were more red than their original colour.
"She got punched in the face." Andy moved from behind the desk.
Jackson knotted his brows together. "By who—"
"Dr. Altman," Andy glanced toward the cardio goddess. "Do you mind lending one of your residents to help clean her up? She can't do it by herself—"
"I'm perfectly capable—" Aliya began to resist, but Andy sternly interrupted.
"No, you're not—"
"It's not that bad!" Aliya looked up at the ceiling, suddenly irritated as she clutched ahold of the bridge of her nose.
"Aliya, have you seen yourself?" Cristina replied, looking at Aliya's bloody face with a grimace.
"I can spare Dr. Avery for ten minutes. Surgery's scheduled in twenty five, which is plenty of time." Dr. Altman instructed, glancing over at a rather frazzled Aliya. "Take care." She nodded towards her, turning off with Cristina in tow.
"While you're at it, you should page plastics." Cristina called over her shoulder, with a smirk.
"Very funny, Yang." Aliya groaned, pressing a shaking hand to her head.
Mark Sloan would have a field day if he saw her like this.
The brunette turned back to Jackson who was stood silently studying her. Andy had already retreated back to the front desk, knowing she was in safe hands with the Avery man.
"I guess you're stuck with me." Jackson led her over to a gurney, a hand gently placed on her elbow to guide her as they walked over towards it. Aliya slipped onto it, wincing sharply as pain began to shoot up her side.. "What happened?"
"Oh, my patient started seizing." Aliya explained.
"And—" Jackson prompted, peeling her hand away from her beat up nose.
"And then, sucker punch." Aliya spoke dramatically, laughing to herself, even though nothing about the situation was remotely funny.
"Why are you laughing? Aren't you in pain?" He reached over for antiseptic from the tray, dabbing it onto a cloth and pressing down onto her wound.
The woman winced,m at the contact, so Jackson started to press the antiseptic into her skin gentler.
"Or is this some sort of psychotic coping mechanism I'm witnessing?"
"Oh, I'm in pain. It's just funny isn't it?" Her body shook from both laughter and shock. "Not him having a seizure, obviously. That's not funny. Not funny at all." She laughed again ducking her head down as her shoulders shook violently.
Jackson smirked at the brunette's laughter. "Head up!" He tilted her chin, finishing off wiping the blood away. "Well, you have a cut on your cheek which needs to be sutured. It's pretty deep but, your nose has stopped bleeding. And you look a lot less like a demented Christmas vampire."
Aliya sighed, giving him a wide tooth smile as he wiped the blood from her nose with a cloth, growing at her Christmas jumper, now covered in flecks of blood. "That's what I was going for."
Jackson chuckled as he discarded the tissues in the trash. "Does it hurt anywhere else?"
"Just my stomach but, it's fine." She pulled up her jumper, exposing a red swollen patch of skin on her side before tugging her sweater back down.
Jackson made a sound before walking away, returning a few seconds later with two ice packs, one for her nose and one for her side.
"Aren't you going to suture up my face?" She questioned as he held an ice pack to her abdomen, strapping it around her waist, casually.
"No." He replied, quickly. "I don't want to be blamed for the rest of my life if I mess it up."
The rest of his life?
Aliya blinked. "Who's going to be responsible for that then?"
"I paged plastics." He explained, getting out the numbing gel and rubbing it on her cut.
"Plastics? Isn't that excessive?" Aliya looked up at him as he placed great concentration on applying the numbing gel.
Aliya just prayed that Mark Sloan was not going to be the one to walk through that door.
"Nope." Jackson placed the rest of the tissues in the bin, grabbing a juice box and handing it to her.
"Do I at least get a Hello Kitty band aid?" She questioned grimly, stabbing her straw into her juice.
Jackson clicked his tongue, pulling out a band aid with a cartoon golden retriever. "No can do, we ran out. The dogs are all we have."
"The dogs will do." Aliya said, decisively.
"What happened to you?" Mark appeared through the double doors, standing at Aliya's side.
Aliya was going to be responsible for the murder of Dr. Jackson Avery. Say your goodbyes now.
"That's my cue, scab nose. I have a surgery. Hope the face gets better." Jackson grinned, passing the golden retriever band aid to her and striding away.
"It's fine, it's just a cut." Aliya put the ice pack that she had held onto her cheek onto the gurney and Mark's eyes widened at the gash, tugging a suture kit out of the drawers and setting it up.
"Just a cut, huh?" The plastic surgeon narrowed his eyes.
Aliya ignored him, changing the subject. "Heard about the daughter thing how's that going?"
Mark paused. "It's— uh— going."
Aliya nodded her head, pulling at the plaster in her hand, the golden retrievers face elongating. "I can guess."
"You've had a teenager randomly show up saying they were your daughter?" Mark swivelled around on the stool, tugging it closer to her gurney.
The brunette grinned. "Just last week, you didn't hear? News travels fast around here, I'm surprised."
Mark gave a short laugh, pursing his lips as he started to sew across Aliya's cheek. "Well, she's staying with us. I don't know how long for. I can barely look her in the eye."
Aliya tilted her head to the side under Mark's instructions, his hand placed on her jaw. "How come?"
"I— feel guilty. You know? The truth is I knew her mom was pregnant." He cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact as he concentrated fully on the suturing. "I didn't do anything about it. Didn't ask if the baby was born, didn't offer child support. I did nothing."
"That was back then. In the past. You have a chance to have a relationship with her. You can make up for the years you weren't there." Aliya tried to make him feel better but, her and regret seemed to go hand in hand. And, that particular feeling of guilt was something that was quite impossible to forget.
Regret was sometimes worse than jealousy.
Mark chuckled, slightly. "That's very logical, but it doesn't help the regret."
"Nothing will help the regret." Aliya replied honestly, bracing a hand on the sheets.
He frowned, tying of the end of the suture, cutting off the thread neatly. "There. All done."
"Thanks. Now I can just blame—"
"Aliya—" He cleared his throat, interrupting her train of thought. "I— I guess I want to apologise."
Aliya narrowed her eyes, slipping off of the gurney to chuck her juice box in the trash. "For what?"
Mark shrugged. "For being an ass in our relationship."
Every bone in Aliya's body tensed at his words, and how tragically late they were. It was all too late. "Excuse me?"
"I guess, what I'm trying to say is—" Mark looked anywhere but her. "I realised the damage I did."
Aliya laughed, despite the whole situation was clearly unfunny. "The damage you did? You're kidding right?"
"Aliya—"
"No." Aliya snapped, not wanting to hear her name on his lisp. "Let's not go there. Thanks for suturing my face up and all, but I'm going to go check up on my patient. I don't have the time and energy to uncover all that again. I'm not in charge of clearing your conscience."
The Levine woman began to walk off, attempting to suppress all of the pain and the rage she felt towards the man who was always perfectly fine.
He was the cut that always seemed to bleed, so it appeared.
No amount of time or space could change that.
She paused as she stood in the doorway, and she cast him a look over her shoulder. "You should know, you didn't do any damage, well, yes you were an ass at the end and you hurt me but, I'm not damaged. Not by you anyway."
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christmas day
Marty went to surgery to treat his brain hemorrage immediately after Aliya left the room to get sutured. The surgery went well, and Aliya watched it from the gallery. However, Derek told her it was for the best if she sat this one out, which she found a load of crap.
The plus side of having her face punched in was to receive an unlimited supply of coffee and baked goods from Alex, who kept coming back and forth to sit with her as she observed the surgery.
The first thing he said when he saw her face was 'I leave you alone for three hours and this is what you go and do?' which made Aliya grin, even though it was all a complete accident.
Her face was still intact, however her cheekbone was bruised. Her interns, whom she put a lot of effort in to get to know on her first year of residency, babbled about their surgeries from the day before as they watched Marty's surgery with her.
It was around eleven o'clock at night on Christmas Eve, and Aliya appeared to have fallen asleep on the neuro floor's front desk, having no recollection of time when she closed her eyes.
She was still there, nobody bothering to wake her up — she looked like she needed the sleep.
Except when Jackson Avery poked the fast asleep woman with his pen. "There are on call rooms for that."
Aliya blinked awake, not rising from the desk, her cheek stuck to her palm. "What time is it?" She mumbled into her sleeve.
"Seven." The Avery man answered. "In the morning."
She jolted up, pinning her wide brown eyes onto the man in front of her. "You let me sleep here, drooling on the paperwork for 8 hours?"
"You look like you needed it." Jackson replied with a shrug, scribbling in his the charts.
Aliya grinned, ignoring the ache in her neck as she stretched awake, rolling out her shoulders. "It's freaking Christmas."
Jackson chuckled. "It's freaking Christmas."
"You weren't meant to be working?" She acknowledged with a yawn, drumming her fingertips on the desk.
"I covered for Patricks." He told her, simply, not making eye contact.
Aliya paused in thought. "She's got three kids."
"Great observation skills." Jackson closed his chart. "Would suck to be away from her kids on Christmas. I have nothing but a bottle of wine to go back to, and well, Charles."
Jackson looked at Aliya's shocked expression, she didn't know why she seemed so shocked by all of this, it wasn't like the man stood opposite her was a bad guy.
"Hey, I can be nice." Jackson defended.
"That was very noble of you." She offered, pushing back from the chair as he shook his head at her comment, smirking ever so slightly. "Well, Merry Christmas, Dr Avery."
He looked up, his green eyes catching in the harsh hospital lights. "Merry Christmas, Dr Levine."
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After dinner with what seemed like half of the hospital staff, Aliya spent the rest of her Christmas day evening sat up on the counter, a discarded bowl of custard in her lap, a spoon in the one hand and a glass of wine in the other.
It really was an ideal situation for her.
That was until Mark entered the room, causing Aliya to take a very big gulp of her wine.
"Woah— You look very serene up there." The Sloan man opened the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water.
"I was in my zen." Aliya replied flatly, scooping the side of the bowl with their spoon.
Was, note the past tense.
"I just wanted to apolo—" He walked sheepishly over to her.
Aliya sighed, the spoon clanking against the edge of the bowl. "Can you just stop apologising? And all together just stop being an ass?"
"Fine." Mark shook his head with a weak laugh, his back resting on the counter opposite her. "If you stop calling me ass."
"Hm. Deal." Aliya handed him the bowl — to clarify, Aliya would always think Mark was an ass, even if she didn't say it directly to his face. "Custard?" Mark took the peace offering, grabbing a clean spoon from the cutlery drawer.
"So, friends?" Mark pushed his luck. "Believe it or not I still like talking to you."
Aliya rolled her eyes. "If you promise to stop being a jerk."
"Oh? So we've moved onto jerk now?" He questioned as he scraped at the bowl, an eyebrow raised.
"Ass went into retirement. Everything needs a replacement." She took a sip of her wine, the red staining her lips pink.
"Fair enough." The pair sat, scooping out the custard from the bowl in silence until the noise of Aliya's cellphone ring tone sounded from her pocket.
With a sigh, Aliya tugged her phone out, the screen lit up with the contact Eliana Levine.
"Oh, for the love of God."
"I'll leave you to it, but I'm taking the custard with me." Mark dashed out the room before Aliya could even protest.
Aliya held the phone to her ear. "Hello?"
"Hello." A voice that was definitely not Elle's spoke into the phone, and Aliya knew exactly who it was. Her mom.
"Mom?" She stiffened, her hand clutching around her wine as if it were a lifeline.
"Yes." Molly Levine replied, slight frustration in her voice for an unknown reason. "I just wanted to call and say Merry Christmas."
"Well, Merry Christmas."
The pair stayed on the phone in silence, which only made Aliya's anxiety increase. Because, it was weird for her mother to be silent. That woman always had something to say.
"I heard what happened with your face." Bailey entered the room, not noticing Aliya was on her phone until she saw her intern point to it. Bailey gave her a thumbs up, wandering around the kitchen silently, locating the source of the cups.
"Uh, Mom, I have to go." Aliya explained in a rush.
"What happened to your face?" Molly's voice was stern, and Aliya found a hint of concern in her voice, something she didn't know her mother could show. Especially if it was towards her.
"Nothing happened, we have people over and it's quite busy. They weren't talking to me." Aliya lied, not wanting to get into it, especially with her mother of all people.
"Oh. Okay. Goodbye, Aliya." She sounded hurt, but Aliya ignored it even though she felt the smallest bit guilty for causing it.
But, she shouldn't though, not after everything her mother has done to her in this lifetime.
"Bye Mom. Tell Dad and everyone else I say Merry Christmas." The phone disconnected and Aliya sighed, annoyed her mom could call and just simply ignore all the upset she had caused last month.
Aliya shrugged, grabbing her wine. "This helps."
"I bet it does." Bailey sighed, leaning on the counter.
Aliya picked up the bottle, pouring it into Bailey's wine glass. "How's the dad thing going?"
Bailey laughed breathlessly, taking a sip as Aliya stopped pouring. "How's the mom thing going?"
"Touché." Aliya sipped at her wine. "I'm sorry that happeened."
Bailey shook her head. "You don't have to apologise."
"You were completely right about what you said by the way. About being happy and having a healthy child. You were right. You put the happiness of your son in front of your own constantly. You shouldn't be diminished for that."
Bailey gave a light smile in thought, after her dad spent the entire Christmas dinner criticising his daughter, Aliya couldn't help but feel sad for her.
"Selfish would never be a word that comes to mind when I hear your name." Aliya told her, sincerely, meaning every word she said.
Bailey looking up at the brunette. "Thank you, Levine."
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( notes! )
i miss christmas 😭
had to mention the iconic hello kitty bandaid/plaster because it's too iconic!
11th march 2024 — so i'm going through all the chapters and editing them and i've just finished this one but honestly this chapter is a bit trash but i don't necessarily want to change anything in it so it just gonna sit here looking cute
( word count! — 6,100 )